In 1979, Birnboim H. C, and Doly J. reported a method for extracting double-stranded plasmid DNA from E. coli by alkaline lysis method. In 1976, Blin N. and Stafford D. W. reported a method for isolating genomic DNA from eukaryotes. Further, in 1972, Aviv. H. and Leder P. reported a method for isolating messenger RNA by chromatography. Recently, as the requirement for a highly purified nucleic acid has been increased in various fields including biotechnology, diagnostics, pharmacology and metabolomics, attempts have been made to isolate a nucleic acid more rapidly and with a higher purity from a variety of biological samples.
The most advanced in the method for isolating a nucleic acid so far is a carrier to specifically adsorb a nucleic acid among various materials, e.g. genomic DNA, plasmid DNA, messenger RNA, protein and cell debris, in cell lysates. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,075,430, 5,155,018, 5,658,548 and 5,808,041 disclose a method for isolating a nucleic acid with chaotropic salts, silica gel, micro silica particles, micro glass particles, micro glass fiber, micro silica fiber, micro silica fibrous membrane, hydrophilic membrane and anion exchange resin membrane. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,665,554, 5,990,479, 6,136,083, 6,255,477, 6,274,386, 6,545,143, and 6,919,444 disclose a method for isolating a nucleic acid by modifying the surface of magnetic metallic particles, such as iron, zinc, etc., and adsorbing specifically an anionic nucleic acid thereto. As set forth above, almost all studies to develop a method for isolating a nucleic acid have been focused on the research and development of materials to adsorb a nucleic acid.
Commercial kits on the market adopt substantially the same methods as those described in the above references. Therefore, in order to rapidly isolate a nucleic acid with a high purity, there has been an eager demand on a new method to rapidly isolate only a desired nucleic acid from cell debris, denatured protein aggregate, and other various materials in cell lysates.